# bittern
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈbɪtən/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
** Homophones: bitten, Bitterne
* (US) IPA: /ˈbɪtəɹn/
* Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)n

### Etymology 1

From Middle English bitour, botor, from Old French butor, from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, a blend of Latin būtiō (“bittern”) and taurus (“bull, ox”).

#### Noun

bittern (plural bitterns)
* Several bird species in the Botaurinae subfamily of the heron family Ardeidae.
** 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle:It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and […] is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface.

##### Derived terms

* forest bittern (Zonerodius heliosylus)
* Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
* Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus)
* American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)
* pinnated bittern (Botaurus pinnatus)
* stripe-backed bittern (Ixobrychus involucris)
* least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis)
* little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus)
* New Zealand bittern (Ixobrychus novaezelandiae)
* yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis)
* Von Schrenck's bittern (Ixobrychus eurhythmus)
* cinnamon bittern (Ixobrychus cinnamomeus)
* dwarf bittern (Ixobrychus sturmii)
* black bittern (Dupetor flavicollis)
* common bittern (Botaurus stellaris)
* sunbittern, sun bittern, sun-bittern (Eurypyga helias)

##### Translations

Armenian: ջրցուլ (hy) (ǰrcʻul)
Belarusian: буга́й (buháj)
Breton: bongorz (br) m
Bulgarian: голям воден бик (goljam voden bik)
Cornish: bonngors m
Czech: bukač (cs) m
Danish: rørdrum (da)
Dhivehi: ރާބޮނދި (rāboⁿdi)
Dutch: roerdomp (nl) m
Egyptian: (kꜣpw)
Esperanto: botaŭro
Finnish: kaulushaikara (fi) (Botaurus), pikkuhaikara (fi) (Ixobrychus), nokihaikara (fi) (Zebrilus)
French: butor (fr) m
Galician: abetouro (gl) m
German: Dommel f, Rohrdommel (de)
Greenlandic: qarluutitoornaq
Hungarian: bölömbika (hu)
Ido: butoro (io)
Irish: bonnán (ga) m
Italian: tarabuso (it)
Japanese: さんかのごい (sankanogoi), にがり (ja) (kogari)
Korean: 알락해오라기 (allakhae'oragi)
Latin: butio m
Latvian: dumpis m
Lithuanian: baublys (lt) m
Low German: Rohrdump f, Rohrdumm f
Maori: kautuku, matuku
Old English: rāredumle f
Persian: بوتیمار (fa)
Polish: bąk (pl) m
Portuguese: abetouro
Romanian: bâtlan-de-stuf m, buhai-de-baltă (ro) m, bou-de-baltă (ro) m
Russian: выпь (ru) f (vypʹ)
Scottish Gaelic: corra-ghrian f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: букач m
Roman: bukač (sh) m
Spanish: avetoro (es) m (Botaurus), avetorillo m (Ixobrychus)
Swedish: rördrom (sv)
Ukrainian: бугай (uk) m (buhaj)
Volapük: botur (vo)
Welsh: adar y bwn m pl, bwm y gors m :

#### See also

* Appendix: Animals
* Appendix:English collective nouns
* bumble

#### References

* bittern on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Botaurinae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
* Category:Botaurinae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

### Etymology 2

From bitter with an unclear suffix, perhaps a dialect form of -ing.

#### Noun

bittern (countable and uncountable, plural bitterns)
* The liquor remaining after halite (common salt) has been harvested from saline water (brine).
* The saline substance added to soy milk to coagulate it as a primary step in the production of tofu.
** 2019, “The Secrets of Tofu across Japan”, in Seasoning the Seasons‎, NHK World-Japan:Now we add the bittern.
* (archaic) A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer.

##### Translations
### Anagrams

* Bittner, Britten